SIR GEORGE DARWIN 185 



ceeded. Through his courtesy the foreign 

 delegates had the opportunity of making the 

 personal acquaintance of several members 

 of the Geodetic staff of England and its 

 colonies, and of other scientific men, who were 

 invited to take part in the Conference ; and 

 when after four meetings in London the 

 delegates went to Cambridge to continue their 

 work, they enjoyed the most cordial hospi- 

 tality from .Sir George and Lady Darwin, who, 

 with her husband, procured them in Newnham 

 Grange happy leisure hours between their 

 scientific labours. 



At this conference Darwin delivered various 

 reports, and at the discussion on Hecker's 

 determination of the variation of the vertical 

 by the attraction of the moon and sun, he gave 

 an interesting account of the researches on 

 the same subject made by him and his brother 

 Horace more than 20 years ago, which un- 

 fortunately failed from the bad conditions of 

 the places of observation. 



In 191 2 Sir George, though already over- 

 fatigued by the preparations for the Mathe- 

 matical Congress in Cambridge, and the exer- 

 tions entailed by it, nevertheless prepared the 

 different reports on the geodetic work in the 

 British Empire, but, alas, his illness prevented 

 him from assisting at the conference at Ham- 

 burg, where they were presented by other 

 British delegates. The conference thanked 

 him, and sent him its best wishes, but at the 

 end of the year the Association had to deplore 

 the loss of the man who in theoretical geodesy 

 as well as in other branches of mathematics 

 and astronomy stood in the first rank, and who 



